A WOMAN has miraculously survived for two nights trapped in the mangled wreckage of her car after it rolled on a Territory highway.

The 36-year-old is believed to have fallen asleep at the wheel when her car ran off the Stuart Highway on Friday evening.

Her car ended up in scrubland 30m off the road, about 150km north of Tennant Creek.

She was not found until about 9.30am Sunday when passing tourists spotted the wreck.

The woman had no food or water with her.

Tourists Ted and Myra McGrath, from Mackay in Queensland, who were on their way to Darwin for a holiday, were amazed to hear the injured woman's cries for help.

The retirees said they had pulled in to Renner Springs Roadhouse when they overheard a road train driver ask a female worker about the wreckage of a car off the road.

The woman replied she knew nothing about a crash in the area so the McGraths said they would check it out as they passed by. "As we drove north, we had actually gone straight past the car as it was so far off the road and hidden in the bush," Mr McGrath, 67, said.

"We went back and you could only see the skid marks on the road. I got out and it was very rocky terrain. When I saw the car I was shocked and thought to myself that no-one would have survived. It was so smashed up. Her belongings were scattered right along the way.

"But then as I was approaching the car, I heard a voice say, 'Is there someone there?'.   I said 'yes' and she asked if I could help her as she had been there for about three days."

Mrs McGrath, 69, sat and talked with the woman while her husband went to get water and call for help on the two-way radio.

"She was very thankful and grateful that we came along," Mr McGrath said.

"She wasn't panicking, but she was trapped and said she could no longer feel her right leg and couldn't move her left leg.

"It would have been horrific for her. There would have been hundreds of cars go by and she would not have been able to yell out to them that she was there."

The woman, who was alone in the car, is believed to have been driving from Darwin to Alice Springs for a job interview.

Emergency service crews from Elliott arrived at the scene soon after and took the woman to Tennant Creek Hospital.

The driver has since been flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital where she remains in a serious but stable condition.

Police are still investigating the incident.

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